Cape Bathurst (Inuit: Awaq) is a peninsula on the northern coast of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It marks the northernmost point of mainland Northwest Territories and is one of the few peninsulas in mainland North America that extend above the 70th parallel north.
John Richardson became the first European to document the area in 1826, when he also named the cape. Baillie Island lies just offshore, separated from the peninsula by a shallow, three-kilometre strait. Nearby, the Smoking Hills present a striking geological feature: a group of hills where oil shale deposits burn continuously. The cape faces significant coastal erosion, with some shoreline areas retreating at a rate of ten metres per year. Cape Bathurst also supports a rare endemic plant, hairy rockcress (Braya pilosa), which grows in only five locations here and on Baillie Island. The species is listed as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.
Cape Bathurst is referenced in Field Notes: Bathurst herd shrinks to 3,609 as Canada eyes Arctic road expansion.
